Chamber and committees

The Executive does not publish any guidance in this area. The establishment and operation of such committees are matters for individual education authorities.

As a result of an anomaly in the Standards in Scotland's Schools etc Act 2000, only parents whose children will be five or over when they start school are eligible to make a legal placing request. We have made a commitment to amend the legislation at the first available opportunity to ensure that parents of children who are four years and six months and over when they start school are eligible to make a placing request. This anomaly does not affect the entitlement of children who are under five when they start school to a school place. In the meantime, authorities have been asked to operate a system to ensure that wherever possible given the legislative restraints, parents of children who will be under five when they start school are given the opportunity to say which school they wish their child to attend. Authorities have been asked to grant those requests wherever possible and allow parents to appeal any decision not to grant them through internal appeals processes.

As a result of an anomaly in the Standards in Scotland's Schools etc Act 2000, only parents whose children will be five or over when they start school are eligible to make a legal placing request. We have made a commitment to amend the legislation at the first available opportunity to ensure that parents of children who are four years and six months and over when they start school are eligible to make a placing request. This anomaly does not affect the entitlement of children who are under five when they start school to a school place. The legislation requires authorities to set guidelines for placing children in their schools generally and to set criteria for accepting legal placing requests where there are more applications for places than places available. However, the legislation does not specify what those criteria might be or their order of priority. It is for authorities to decide what priority they give to different groups of children and therefore practice on taking such decisions will vary from authority to authority. Clearly such decisions have to be made within the existing legal framework, and the answer to question S1W-15097 gave information regarding guidance issued by the Scottish Executive on placing requests in January 2001.

Guidance on this issue was issued to authorities on 16 January 2001 and is publicly available on request. A copy of the guidance has also been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

Under the terms of the Scottish Qualifications Authority's (SQA) Management Statement and Financial Memorandum, the Scottish Qualifications Authority is responsible for the development of its management and staffing structures and for human resource management. I have asked the Chair to write to Mr Russell.

Entries for the 2001 diet are still being submitted by centres and as a result the information requested is not yet available. I have asked the Chair of the Scottish Qualifications Authority to write to Mr Russell once the information is available.

Under the terms of the Scottish Qualification Authority's (SQA) Management Statement and Financial Memorandum, the Scottish Qualifications Authority is responsible for the development of its management and staffing structures and for human resource management. I have asked the Chair to write to Mr Russell.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority's Annual Statistical Report for 1999 reported that 70 centres offered Latin and 45 centres offered classical studies.

The latest information available at September 1998, shows there were an estimated 61 (FTE) teachers recording Latin as their main subject qualification, and a further 107 (FTE) teachers recording Latin as a supplementary qualification, in publicly funded secondary schools. Similarly, there were 60 (FTE) teachers recording Classics as their main subject qualification, and another 37 recording Classics as a supplementary qualification.

This is a matter for the Scottish Qualifications Authority. I have asked the Chair to write to Mr Russell.